Business object attributes
Attributes of business objects contain the data that is associated with a business object. A persistent attribute represents a database table column or a database view column. A nonpersistent attribute exists in memory only, because the data that is associated with the attribute is not stored in the database.
A persistent business object can have persistent and nonpersistent attributes. Persistent attributes of a business object relate to columns of a database table or view. All attributes of a non-persistent business object are non-persistent.
The additional metadata that is associated with business object attributes is stored apart from the basic data type information. For example, attributes can include a domain, a custom class, a default value, and to specify whether the attribute is required.
Restrictions on attributes
Before you modify an attribute, you can verify whether it was created by the system or by someone at your site. Attributes created by the system have more restrictions on modifications than user-defined attributes. You cannot delete attributes created by the system.
In integration scenarios, data for a business object might be received from external business applications. Restricting changes to attributes prevents external data from overwriting the value of an attribute.
Some restrictions depend on whether text search is enabled for the object or on the data type. The rules governing modifications vary by attribute. For example, certain data types have a set value for the length, scale, dates, or integers. The Memo field is a regular ALN data type and it does not contain restricted values.
- View the current object attribute restrictions
- Restrict the attributes of an object
- Remove attribute restrictions from an object